11/14/06

It's not the functionality. I'm not a gadget head and I haven't played with one, anyway. You can read up on it at Gizmodo, if you're interested. It actually looks (marginally) cool. I'm boycotting the Zune (and you should too) because of this:

Yesterday, Microsoft agreed to share revenue from Zune sales with record labels and artists. Forcing the issue was Universal Music Group, which at deadline is the only label named in the program. UMG refused to license its music to the Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions.

"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. "So it's time to get paid for it." (billboard)

Bob Lefsetz basically took the words out of my mouth when he covered this last week. I figured I'd wait to echo him until this thing was actually on the market. This old-school bullying has no place in the portable player space, and Microsoft should have just told Doug Morris and his cronies to take a long walk off a short pier. It's worked for Steve Jobs.